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Vodafone has million reasons to boast about 4G

Vodafone claims it is winning back customers, with the telecom operator saying more than a million 4G devices were now operating on its high-speed network since it launched around eight months ago.

Vodafone said the speed with which its existing and new customers were embracing 4G devices had surpassed its expectations, with the telco able to offer generous data speeds and inclusions over rivals Telstra or Optus. It said it was adding 30,000 4G customers a week.

The figures come ahead of a top level shake-up of Vodafone's local ranks, with the telco's Romanian chief executive Inaki Berroeta set to replace outgoing Vodafone Australia chief Bill Morrow from March 1.

It follows a tough period for the telco operator after it bled customers in 2011 amid reliability problems plaguing its older 3G network.

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The figures from Vodafone follow recent crowd-sourced speed tests compiled by British firm OpenSignal showing Vodafone offered the fastest 4G mobile broadband download speeds on average in Sydney and Melbourne.

The results of the tests also showed Telstra offered the fastest 3G speeds in both capital cities.

Before Thursday's announcement, Vodafone said in October that it had 800,000 4G devices on its network, while in May Telstra said it had 2.1 million.

Optus has 1.38 million 4G handsets, but did not disclose the total number of 4G tablets and mobile broadband dongles on its network.

JPMorgan Securities telco analyst Paul Brunker said Vodafone's hitting the 1 million 4G devices has been helped by extensive marketing around the high-speed wireless technology.

''It shows that the number of 4G devices in the market has increased [and] the amount of marketing that's been put on it by all the players has increased,'' he said.

Even so, he said Vodafone was a ''long way'' from overtaking second-ranked operator Optus. Mr Brunker said there were still questions among consumers over the consistency of Vodafone's coverage.

Telstra has the widest network coverage, with its 3G and 4G mobile network said to cover 99.3 per cent of the Australian population. Meanwhile, Optus claims its network footprint covers 98.5 per cent of the population. The last time Vodafone gave such a figure was in 2009, when its was said to cover more than 94 per cent of the population. The company has since agreed with Optus to allow Vodafone's customers to roam on to the Optus network.

Overall, Telstra has about 15.3 million mobile subscribers, while Optus 9.55 million and Vodafone 5.44 million respectively, Mr Brunker said.

Vodafone's latest 4G figures follow last week's announcement of the appointment of Mr Berroeta.